2018 Farm Outlook

2018 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Oct. 25, 2018 Page 35 M artin Family Farms of rural Mount Pulaski is a farming operation run by Jeff Martin and his sons, Doug and Derek. The operation also employs two full-time employees and around eight to 10 employees during harvest. Doug and Derek both grew up on the farm and are sixth generation farmers. Doug has been involved in the family operation for 20 years while Derek has held a variety of Ag related jobs throughout his career. Derek came back to the family business five years ago after a ten-year stint managing Lake Fork Elevator. Both young men are innovators in agriculture, much like their father, Jeff. Jeff Martin was one of the first farmers to implement no-till farming back in 1982 when he experimented with 40 acres of land. The Martin family has always been very conscientious about conserving the soil and 2018 sees the family once again at the forefront of innovation. This time the family is on the cutting edge of reaping the benefits of making the soil healthy in order to produce a cost-effective crop in the ever- changing Ag economy. The benefits of managing soil health By Teena Lowery Doug and Jeff Martin of Martin Family Farms. Photos courtesy of Martin Family Farms. Over time the Martins have seen the benefits of lower input costs, higher yields and overall improvement in the soil health, all which in turn allows them to produce crops at maximum efficiency. “We’ve been working with different products and we are arriving at more of a conclusion to where the microbial process in the soil allows it to be more healthy, allows us to use more of the available nutrients that are in the soil,” said Doug. “Between that and the cover crops, we experiment with a lot of things, but the microbial process products seem to be giving us more of an advantage and making our soil healthier.” Derek jumped in to explain. “All of our soil has microbes in it, which are beneficial bacteria and fungi. It’s either beneficial or non-beneficial. Currently a lot of it is non-beneficial given the CONTINUED